A proud unapologetic Black trans woman speaking truth to power and discussing the world around her since 2006

Friday, June 02, 2017

It's Not 'Talking Politics' To Cosign Oppression

This is a guest post from my Arizona homegirl Toni D'orsay. She's tired of people who use the term 'talking politics' to weakly attempt to camouflage the fact they are cosigning oppression when they do so.

This was originally on her Facebook page, and I'm signal boosting it for your TransGriot reading pleasure.

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It is not "talking politics" when you say that trans people should not be able to use public accommodations.

It is not talking politics when you argue, even for fun or to "prove a point", that black people are not able to follow the law.

It is not politics when you argue that a woman does not have the right to decide what she can and cannot do with her body.

It is not talking politics when you argue for a ban on refugees or you call someone an "illegal immigrant".

Those things are not talking politics. Talking politics is not what you are doing when you support or advocate for oppression, which is violence, and for the denial of human rights, which is also violence -- even if you "don't think it is a human right".

It is not talking politics when you are racist, or misogynist, or ableist, or homophobic, or transphobic, or you think that someone is better than someone else because of how much more money they have (indeed, factually, the opposite is true).

I don't give a flying fuck if you think that someone needs to be polite about stuff or nice about stuff or if we should all just get along because, factually, so long as there i oppression, we cannot, and will not, and never will get along -- as the last seven thousand years have shown rather well.

Either you support human rights -- which must be zealously protected, and which take priority over your whole idea of feeling safe and secure -- or you do not.

There is no middle ground there outside the simple fact that we do not know all of those rights yet. But the ones we do know we must defend, and there is no "not doing so" and thinking that all of this will go away.

This is not with us or against us or beside us or over there somewhere with your thumb up your ass -- at least, not if you believe in people being treated fairly and decently and being able to live their lives.

You might have a philosophical difference of opinion about the value of human rights and all, but the moment your theories are applied to a real world test and involve the denial or abrogation of human rights to anyone, you fucked up, and that idea is an evil one.

You remember evil, don't you? Kinda out of fashion to talk about. Well, that's what all this stuff you think you are doing is -- evil.

If you talk about misandry -- you are engaging in an act of evil. If you talk about reverse racism, you are engaging in evil. If you think that the confederate statues should still be up, or that the Republican Party is a decent one, or that "unfettered free markets" are a good thing -- you are not talking politics. You are talking about being evil, and you are doing it for your own benefit, and saying fuck you to the rest of the world.

Which is evil done for evil purposes.

You wanna know what talking politics is?

talking politics is arguing about the best way to do a universal basic income. Talking politics is about the the best way to protect the environment without concern for its commercial use.

Talking politics is about how we go about ensuring that everyone's human rights are protected, not about who we are going to take them away from but pretending to really care.

Of late, about 90% of any substantive stuff is not talking politics. It's talking about being evil.

So if you wonder why some people still support the orange fuckup and the vast majority of people want to see him out of office, there you have it:

Those that support him are literally evil people. No matter what their reasons are. They are supporting evil, which is and of itself is an evil act.

Those that oppose him may be evil in some ways (I've seen misogyny and racism on the left, many times), but they are less evil than those who support the orange fuckup.

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About The TransGriot

Monica Roberts, AKA the TransGriot (Gree-oh) is a native Houstonian, GLAAD award nominated blogger, writer, and award winning trans human rights advocate. She's the founding editor of TransGriot, and her writing has appeared at the Bilerico Project, Ebony.com, The Huffington Post and the Advocate.
She works to foster understanding and acceptance of trans people inside and outside communities of color and was recently honored with the Virginia Prince Transgender Pioneer Award

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The TransGriot blog's mission is to become the griot of our community. I will introduce you to and talk about your African descended trans brothers and trans sisters across the Diaspora, reclaim and document our chocolate flavored trans history, speak truth to power, comment on the things that impact our trans community from an Afrocentric perspective and enlighten you about the general things that go on around me and in the communities that I am a member of.

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